Person

McCarthy, Emma Maud (1859 - 1949)

GBE

Born
22 September 1859
Paddington, New South Wales, Australia
Died
1 April 1949
Chelsea, England
Occupation
Nurse

Summary

Dame Emma McCarthy was a highly decorated war-time nurse. She received the Queen's and King's Medal (1902), the Royal Red Cross (1902) and a Bar (1918c), the Florence Nightingale Medal, the Belgian Medaille de la Reine Elizabeth, the French Légion d'honneur and Medaille des Epidémies and was appointed Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE). In 1891 McCarthy left Australia to study nursing in England. After graduating, she was appointed Sister at the London Hospital and served as Sister-in-Charge at the Sophia Women's Ward during the South African War. This was followed by seven years service with the Army Nursing Service Reserve. When World War I broke out McCarthy was posted to the British Expeditionary Force and served in France and Flanders. As Matron-in-Chief, she was in charge of all British and Allied Nurses working in the extended region - around 6000 nurses at its peak. Dame Emma McCarthy returned to England after the war and worked as Matron-in-Chief of the Territorial Army Nursing Service from 1920 until her retirement in 1925.

Details

Chronology

1891 - c. 1894
Education - Probationer undertaking general nursing training at London Hospital in Whitechapel
1894 - 1899
Career position - Sister at the London Hospital
1899 - 1902
Career position - Sister in the Army Nursing Service Reserve
c. 1902
Award - Royal Red Cross
c. 1902
Award - Queen's and King's Medal
1903 - 1910
Career position - Matron with the Army Nursing Service Reserve at Aldersshot, Netley and Millbank military hospitals
1910 - c. 1914
Career position - Principal Matron at the War Office
1914 - c. 1919
Career position - Matron, then Matron-in-Chief appointed to the British Expeditionary Force in Abbeville, France and Flanders
1918
Award - Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE)
1920 - 1925
Career position - Matron-in-Chief with the Territorial Army Nursing Service
1925
Life event - Retired

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

  • McCarthy, Gavan; Morgan, Helen; Smith, Ailie; van den Bosch, Alan, Where are the Women in Australian Science?, Exhibition of the Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, First published 2003 with lists updated regulary edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, 2003, https://eoas.info/exhibitions/wisa/wisa.html. Details

Book Sections

  • McCarthy, Perditta M., 'McCarthy, Dame Emma Maud (1859-1949), nursing sister and army matron-in-chief' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 10: 1891 - 1939 Lat-Ner, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1986), pp. 218-219. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A100210b.htm. Details

Resources

Resource Sections

McCarthy, G.J.

EOAS ID: biogs/P001303b.htm

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Published by Swinburne University of Technology.
This Edition: 2024 November (Ballambar - Gariwerd calendar - early summer - season of butterflies)
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The Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation uses the Online Heritage Resource Manager (OHRM), a relational data curation and web publication system developed by the eScholarship Research Centre and its predecessors at the University of Melbourne 1999-2020. The OHRM has been maintained by Gavan McCarthy since 2020.

Cite this page: https://www.eoas.info/biogs/P001303b.htm

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